Thereâ€™s a lot of love out there for our 2017 bikes, particularly the new incarnation of the Sequoia and the reimagined Roubaix. What can we say? We tend to agree!

The bike press are loving our 2017 bikes

…and who can blame them?

There’s a lot of love out there for our 2017 bikes, particularly the new incarnation of the Sequoia and the reimagined Roubaix. What can we say? We tend to agree!

SEQUOIA

The Sequoia is our answer to the all-round adventure bike question that the cycling industry is bubbling with. Bikepacking is the fastest growing discipline in terms of popularity and demand and the Sequoia has it all. Harking back to the steel-framed endurance bikes of generations ago, this new model borrows the name of the first Specialized bike ever to enter production, but that’s almost where the similarity ends. This new iteration oozes versatility with its disc brakes and a wealth of bike rack options and bottle mounts. It is a bike that promises to light the flame of adventure in anyone new to the wonders of ‘bikepacking’.

Reviewers everywhere have been enthusiastically praising its versatility, including Ron Koch at Bicycling magazine.

“I was shocked at how well this bike does in what most would consider mountain bike territory.”

He concluded with a pleasing reflection on the Sequoia’s position amongst the competition and its success as a solution to the adventure riding market.

“Specialized has really thrown its resources at adventure riding and, as a result, seems to have knocked the Sequoia and related gear out of the park.”

This illustrates the nature of the bike as a perfect solution to the all-round rider. While it’s not going to compete with road specific carbon models where weight and rigidity are concerned, the Sequoia would be a great solution for multi-disciplinarians who just want the one bike to suit all their needs.

The guys at the Radavist were keen to point out the technical specifications of the Sequoia, specifically the tyres and fork.

“I like the 42mm tire platform on bikes like this. They’ll roll on the street just fine…and they’ll take on dirt with confidence-inspiring cornering.”

There’s no hiding the amount of experimentation and innovation that was done to find the very best tread for the adventurous all-rounder, so it’s great to hear that the testing has paid off!

“This fork is what everyone has been asking the industry to make for some time now.”

The brand new Roubaix has been the source of a great amount of interest this autumn thanks to the new innovations in suspension and comfort for the hardest of terrains. The Roubaix has long been one of our most important and well-recognised bikes in the range. It has all the stiffness, low weight and pedalling efficiency that you would expect from a carbon fibre racing bike, but with more endurance-suited geometry. The big difference with this new model however is in its smoothness: “smoother equals faster”. Developed with the help of McLaren, the radical new front end suspension cartridge, located in the head tube, levels out the lumps and bumps on the road. This technology will benefit amateur riders looking for comfort and endurance as well as professionals and weekend warriors racing over cobbles.

Bikeradar gave the new Roubaix the coveted five stars, listing it as an ‘exceptional’ machine; a genuine class leader, and describing it as “perhaps the most important bike Specialized has launched to date”. The only negative that Warren Rossiter at Bikeradar could come up with, was that “It’ll make your other bikes redundant.” Thanks Warren! Describing its all-round performance, he wrote:

“You can hammer this Specialized as fast as you like with no concern for scarred surfaces, potholes, ruts and heavy gravelled surfaces…Through high-speed corners the bike feels superbly balanced and the bonus of excellent braking makes the Roubaix our new favourite companion for descending duties.”

…and comparing it to previous models:

“It’s a world apart from the original; more aggressive and nimble and it has a level of road holding that’s simply astonishing.”

Dave Everett over at Cycling Tips was full of praise for the efficiency with which the new Roubaix carries speed and comfort through cobbled sections (he was lucky enough to test it on some of the sections of Paris-Roubaix).

“Finishing cobbled sections feeling fresh was a whole new and very welcome experience.”

That’s a welcome review and hopefully its a good sign of what benefits could be experienced by the pros in the Spring classics in 2017!

Our all-mountain dream bike is another to receive high praise in its new iteration. While there have been no really major overhauls like the Roubaix its efficiency, lightweight construction and highly-tuned geometries have benefited from innovation and design development. It continues to be a perfect machine for those seeking to combine the trails of the backcountry with racing enduro in one capable and efficient bike.

Bikeradar writer, Robin Weaver, stated that: “Not many [bikes] have endured quite as well as the Enduro.” He elaborated that:

“It’s when the trail gets really rowdy that the control from the fork really shines through.”

The new model’s key developments have been to improve its climbing and descending efficiency and the fork from Swedish suspension experts Ohlins is a key factor contributing to that.